Empire Rising Online: The 100 Years Build to War

Empire Rising Online: The 100 Years Build to War

By Jerrico Tan (JetSet), OnRPG Journalist

Empire Rising Online is a free-to-play browser game developed by “Ndoors” set during the 1400 Renaissance War in Europe.

Starting players are offered to choose from one of four historical empires namely the Hussars, English, French and the Ottomans. Like most browser based MMORTS titles, this strategy game is primarily about building a colonial empire that is strong enough to conquer the towns of other players.

The game’s basics are simple and easy. The tutorials would only take 15 minutes to complete, and once you are familiar with your town’s buildings, the rest of the details and mechanics will simply follow and you’re ready to go.

Some of the game’s features are reminiscent of Age of Empires with the graphics (especially the towns and maps) being its notable similarity. Second are the game’s age advancements; advancing to a new age changes your town’s appearance while at the same time giving you more upgrade options. But with all those predispositions aside, the European setting was wonderfully realized and the game’s presentation of the renaissance period was perfectly delivered. The vital town and map menus were well-thought out as well.

The town is the place where players do all the needed colonial work. There are tons of available upgrades and technologies to research in the game that would help players raise their town in both resource and military efficiency. Researching upgrades takes real time to complete, so once you start upgrading to the feudal age, upgrades could take hours. Training soldiers goes the same as upgrading; training time depends on how many units a player wishes to train.

The way of attacking enemies is quite unconventional in Empire Rising. The map menu is like a grid of towns where players can collect coordinates, which then must be considered when players are planning to launch an attack. Time is an essential factor as the amount of time needed for your troops to arrive on its target depends on how far your target town is.

Another thing that makes this game interesting is the three available modes of attack when attacking towns. For every successful attack, a unique reward is given. “Raiding” rewards the attacker resources looted from the pillaged town. “Invading” rewards the attacker’s general tons of EXP. And lastly, a successful “Colonize Attack” will reward the winner with a percentage of the town’s total resource income (and that’s what I call colonial tyranny).

Unfortunately, there are no visual sequences during combat. Players will just simply receive a letter regarding the combat’s results. The lack of visuals in this game is quite disappointing especially for some players who wait for hours to prep up their attack squads. In fact, almost all of the game’s elements involve waiting for countdowns to complete, which also makes this game a drag to some extent. Once players get to the point where they have to wait hours for their upgrades, the game gets pretty boring. Luckily, they could spend hours talking with other players in the game’s Chat Box while waiting for the upgrades and combat countdowns. Players could earn new friends, join forces with other players or form their own alliances.

Alliances are the game’s guild system, and this component is what makes Empire Rising unique. Joining in an alliance gives players the privilege to access co-op quests that offer monetary rewards together with attack and defense enhancements. But in this game, having a well-planned monetary system isn’t enough to achieve glory; to possess a political and strategic mind is also of paramount importance.

With a vast collection of colony building titles already in the market, Empire Rising offers us an exciting new gameplay to experience in the world of MMORTS. Fans of this kind of genre won’t be disappointed in trying this one out. Likewise, if you are new to browser based strategy games, and are looking for a fun way to pass time during the day, then this game will definitely fulfill your entertainment needs.